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Last night, KOKO - a converted, ornate theatre in London's Camden area - was the scene of I'm With The Banned: Staging a Revolution: I'm With The Banned, the launch event of a set of events to mark the Belarus Free Theatre Festival. The festival is staging a two-week festival of performances at secret underground locations in celebration of the company's 10th anniversary, and preceding these was this solidarity concert of music, performance art and readings as part of the celebrations.

The diverse show united artists who live in political freedom with banned bands from Belarus, and other performers supporting those affected. In particular, and headlining the show, was David Gilmour, who, along with Jon Carin and vocalist Bryan Chambers, performed with Ukrainian supergroup Boombox, who fronted the Maidan demonstrations in Kiev with Okean Elzy and Ruslana. They are now banned from performing in Russia because of their pro-freedom stance.

Other artists on the bill included Neil Tennant & Nicolai Khalezin, representatives of Pussy Riot, Viktoria Modesta, Brutto, and Juliet Stevenson & Jeremy Irons. However, it was clear that many of the capacity audience were there for one main reason - to see David perform (as Modesta acknowledged during her piece to the audience).

With a more basic light show to hand, the audience were treated to a strong Astronomy Domine to start things off on a high note. This was followed by a couple of tracks from David's new album - In Any Tongue, which went down extremely well, and the title track, Rattle That Lock, with the classic Wish You Were Here performed in the middle of these tracks.

Interestingly, Rattle That Lock included a number of backing singers - not just Bryan Chambers, but David's security man, Barrie Knight, David's wife Polly, plus assorted family and friends, all looking to be having a whale of a time. Some pictures from the show will be on this site a little later today.

UPDATE: Our thanks to Peter Chow for sending over the following three spectacular shots from the concert...just click the thumbnails to see the pictures in more detail: